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Matchworn Valdes Pasolini 14.11.1990 SMR 🇸🇲 : SUI 🇨🇭 0-4
Manufacturer: Diadora
Source: Collector
It's November 14, 1990, and after coming into existence four years ago, the Sammarinese national team takes the field in front of its home crowd to play its first official football match against Switzerland. It takes just seven minutes before Pierluigi Benedettini, then San Marino goalkeeper, has to pick the ball out of the net for the first time. To this day (April 2023), Sammarinese goalkeepers will have to do this a whole 806 more times. With a goal ratio of 28 to 807 and just one win in 198 games, San Marino is considered the worst national team in the world. A fact that is mainly due to San Marino's affiliation with UEFA – surely the strongest continental association. "La Serenissima", as the team is called, has been working on an increasingly professional level despite having mostly amateur players in their squad and would, without question, prevail against other teams from the lowlands of FIFA ranking, such as Anguilla, the British and American Virgin Islands or Turks & Caicos.
As a fan of the national team, I am very proud to add (another) piece of Sammarines soccer history to my collection. After receiving a jersey from San Marino's only winning game two years ago, I now hold in my hands a jersey from the said first official game of the national team.
The simple design from the Italian manufacturer "Diadora" is in the traditional colors of the country and bears the crest of the soccer federation, which would adorn the jerseys of "La Serenissima" for the next 22 years. It worn by Valdes Pasolini who would score San Marino's first ever goal just a few months later.
